Gooey Butter Cake Cookies

Freshly baked cookies are always a treat. Image by author.

Last month, we took a break from the Colorado cold and spent a week in San Diego. I was correct to assume the tacos would be next-level delicious, but I was surprised to find my new favorite cookie living its best life along the shores of the Pacific at The Baked Bear. This dreamy ice cream sandwich shop opened in 2013 in Pacific Beach offers fresh made-from-scratch ice cream sandwiched between melt-in-your-mouth cookies that are baked up daily.

I'm limited on how many sweets I can eat these days, so I ordered one of their Gooey Butter Cake Cookies a la carte while my family went to town on customized cookie sandwiches that sent my daughter swooning. I'm still thinking about that cookie's perfect sugar-to-butter and chew-to-fluff ratios. Englewood's high altitude impacts some baked goods' ability to rise evenly, but I've come up with an approximation to share. You can find a variety of recipes that use boxed cake mix as the recipe ingredient, which does offer more fluff. Still, I've loved how this recipe's slightly chewier outcome includes tangy notes thanks to the inclusion of cream cheese.

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Gooey Butter Cake Cookies Makes 36 Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup salted butter

• 1 cup cream cheese

• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar

• 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks

• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

• 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
  

Directions

To prepare the dough:

1. Grab a large bowl, and whisk flour, baking powder, and salt until mixed well.

2. With a stand mixer or a hand mixer and another bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

3. Now, add the eggs (this includes the egg yolks) one at a time to the butter/cream cheese mixture, fully beating before adding the next. Then, add vanilla, and blend until incorporated.

4. Finally, with the mixer on low speed, slowly add the mixed dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, until just combined. (Overmixing will activate gluten and toughen the dough.)

5. Place the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes, and then it's baking time!

Time to bake:

1. About 15 minutes before you're ready to bake, grab a cookie sheet and line with a Silpat mat or parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and add the confectioners sugar to a medium-sized bowl.

2. Remove the dough from the freezer, and portion out tablespoon scoops, gently rolling each portion of dough between the palms of your hands until they are round. Roll the dough balls in the confectioners sugar until covered, and place on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. (These cookies will spread, and this spacing should avoid them baking into a one large, misshapen chimera cookie.)

3. Bake for 12-14 minutes, and let cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before moving to a rack or other clean, flat surface to cool completely.

4. Once cool, enjoy immediately, or store in an airtight container for up to a week.